A delicate balance ■ I was disturbed by Kenneth Poli’s assertions in “Critical Focus” [“How Much Freedom for the Press?”] in your November issue. I thought they showed a remarkable lack of understanding of our profession. Perhaps we should get rid of photography entirely because of the possibility that most pictures are like the one which supposedly “hasn’t told the whole truth."

For a number of years now, Eastman Kodak Co. has been tantalizing us with hints about an entirely new camera/film format, the socalled disk system, to replace 110 in the amateur market. Recently, the rumors and more than rumors have been flying thicker than ever, and it seems certain that Kodak will end the suspense by announcing details of the disk system soon, before the Photo Marketing Association trade show and convention in Las Vegas in February, and maybe before this issue reaches you.

By now there are several dozen home-video cameras on the market, and most of them are difficult to tell from one another; in some cases there are no basic differences at all. One exception is Akai's VCX1U, which is as distinctive in its styling as Kodak’s Instamatic XL models compared to other super 8 cameras.

How does the new FI-10 film compare with Kodak’s PR10? The image develops faster and is somewhat sharper; color rendition is accurate

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Don Leavitt

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Fuji Photo Film of Japan has finally introduced its long-awaited instant camera and film system. However, it will probably not be sold in the United States for quite a while. Consisting of film packs that contain 10 automatically self-developing, full-color instant prints, and a folding plastic camera with a standard Galilean-type viewfinder, the Fuji system is, conceptually speaking, a clone of Eastman Kodak’s PR 10 instant system.

Dealing with the variety of light in indoor and outdoor photography: four new books give you helpful hints

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Jack Neubart

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With all the subtleties and peculiarities of light, it is surprising that more authors haven’t written on the lighting differences between indoor and outdoor photography. However, I’ve recently discovered four books that successfully bring these subjects out of the dark: two by Michael Freeman, The Manual of Outdoor Photography, and The Manual of Indoor Photography (New York: Ziff-Davis, 1981; 224 pp.; hardcover, S14.95 each); and Photographing Outdoors with Your Automatic Camera, and Photographing Indoors with Your Automatic Camera, both by Barbara London and Richard Boyer (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold/Somerville, Ma.: Curtin & London, 1981; 137 pp.; paperback, $6.95 each).

When little things mean a lot to the photographer, the right photomicrographic gear does, too

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Norman Goldberg

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A bunch of us were sitting around in the bunker, peering into our eyepieces and squeezing off a shot now and then. We saw the results the next day and smiled. The wrinkled berry, butterfly, and dollar bill looked great, but the bubble in the plastic slab was worth a trip to Hamburg.

The joys and challenges of white-water rafting: how to take great pictures while negotiating the rapids

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Carl Purcell

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I’ll never forget that first time on the Youghiogheny River. The rubber raft was like a living creature, undulating and moving with a volition of its own. A waterproof camera was around my neck, my nonaquatic cameras neatly sealed in a rubber bag with the film and a dry towel.

The colors you get from your flash may not be what you think you're getting. Here's why

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Ed Farber

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According to Kodak, through the use of only three dyes, color films are able to produce a pleasing rendering of most colors, but no film reproduces all colors perfectly. Therefore, we must not get our hopes too high and expect what the process will never be able to accomplish. At the same time, we are faced with the realities of manufacturing methods and the price we are willing to pay.

The “instant” is shorter now, but more-or-less instant pictures have been around for more than 90 years

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Eaton S. Lothrop

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In the larger cities, many photofinishers offer same-day service (“In by 9:00, out by 4:00”), which is great. If the day you shot the photos wasn’t Friday or Saturday, you can have them the next day—if, of course, you Finished off the roll of Film.

The International Center of Photography, 1130 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10028 offers a diverse education program that encompasses virtually every aspect of photography from esthetics and criticism to basic and advanced darkroom techniques. Each year, over 2,500 people attend lectures, symposia, and workshops taught by the ICP faculty and an ever-changing roster of the world's leading photographers and visiting artists.

You don’t measure color temperature with a thermometer, nor do you actually move film around when you push it

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Norman Rothschild

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It seems to be sport for some photographers to bandy about technical terms such as image magnification, pushing, and color temperature, for example, without really knowing their true meaning. Perhaps it makes them seem important and knowledgeable, but it also spreads misinformation that can confuse someone trying for a specific result.

Inexpensive accessories can protect equipment, lift out chemical stains, and help you deal with tricky light

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Recently published books:

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Cora Wright Kennedy

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One very enjoyable aspect of photography can be finding special tools that are both effective and inexpensive. And over the past few months I’ve acquired a handful of such items that might also solve important problems for you. For instance, I am delighted with the inflatable, 8½x10¼-in., plastic Sima Air Shield Utility Pouch (shown below left).

Here’s how one photojournalist modified his SLR to provide automatic bracketing for fast-breaking color-slide situations

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BOOKS IN BRIEF

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Bill Pierce

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“The first manufacturer who comes up with an automatic camera that automatically brackets the exposure is going to wrap up the professional market.” Bracketing is so important when you are shooting low-latitude color-slide film that almost every serious photographer has made this statement.

Beaumont Newhall is a major figure in photography primarily due to his prodigious 45-year effort to chronicle its history. An exhibit of his photographs, however, at the University of New Mexico art museum in Albuquerque (Beaumont Newhall—Photographs, Sept. 12-Oct. 25, 1981 ), reveals him also to be a photographer of considerable skill and talent.

A famous image by Gertrude Käsebier is snapped up by private collector for a record-breaking auction price of $19,000; Berenice Abbott is honored

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Jacob Deschin

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A platinum print by Gertrude Käsebier, “Blessed Art Thou Among Women,” 1899, one of the most beautiful in photographic history, fetched the world record of $19,000 for a single Käsebier print. The record was established at the November auction of Christie’s East in New York.

I pedaled 30 to 35 miles each day for five days and did something I couldn’t do in a car—stop and take pictures

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Edward Meyers

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From about the time I was 13, I remember studying ads in the camera magazines, and then dreaming about owning Leicas, Contaxes, and Rolleis. I never dreamed about Speed Graphics. But my father, who owned a twin-lens Rollei, often said that he thought about trading it in for a miniature (21/4x31/4) Speed Graphic.

Asphalt Gardens, by Flo Fox. Washington, D C.: National Access Center; 80 pp.; paperback, $12.98 This is an unusual collection. The images were taken by a legally blind photographer with a 35-mm autofocus camera, and the book, with large-type, high-contrast captions, was designed for accessibility to those with limited vision.

Photo books for kids are a family affair with the Ron Goors; one on bugs is headed for 100,000 copies

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Howard Chapnick

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You're Ronald Goor, a biochemist and amateur photographer. You work a 40-hour work week for the National Institute of Health in Washington, D.C. Married, father of two children, you're boyishly enthusiastic, have incredible energy, and you like your job. You have one problem.

■ When photographing ski scenes I always wind up with blue snow. I've tried skylight filters and UV filters to no avail. Switching from Kodak Ektachrome film to Kodachrome helped, but not enough. What can I do? Eric D. Krouse, Albuquerque, N.M. Stay with the Kodachrome film, but try using an 81A filter for somewhat more of a warming effect.

■ News cameras and microphones do not a trial disrupt. At least, that’s the sense of a report based on a study of one year of this newfangled news coverage in California courtrooms. The study, according to the Los Angeles Times, was prepared by Ernest H. Short and Associates for the state’s Judicial Council.

Photography’s newest technoluxury comes in several varieties, all of them interesting

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Norman Goldberg

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Now that Pentax has unveiled the world’s first production-model 35-mm SLR with through-lens autofocus, expect to see competitive models soon. As we wait for the contest to occur, it’s a little like watching rival armies getting ready for battle.

“How much of our visual life is made up of ordinary, odd, unimportant things ... I am fascinated by the unintentional man-made beauty in the world . . . the accidental ephemeral beauty that offers us experiences of delight, humor, and sensual gratification,” says Chicago art teacher, critic, and photography enthusiast Gretchen Garner.

How does Mike Keller do it? He finds lovely young girls who seem to enjoy—hugely—being photographed, their exuberance fairly bursting out of the picture; others threaten to smolder their way through the camera lens; and they all seem completely natural and at ease. And in every case, Mike makes some obtuse technical point visually clear.

There’s an old saying that when everything seems to be going well and without a hitch, you must be forgetting something important. The pictures on these pages show what can go wrong if you, like me, grow overconfident and fail to pay attention to important photographic details.

You can use negatives you already have or shoot some especially for montaging

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Ralph M. Hattersley

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Montages often look strange; their symbolism is sometimes exciting, and they provide ways for expressing ideas that are hard to communicate using ordinary photographs. They seem to relate more to dreams than to everyday life. They can help you think of things that would otherwise never cross your mind and help you see the relatedness of things that you have never before thought about at the same time.

It ranges from wide-angle to telephoto, focuses to 1 /3 life-size—and weighs barely a pound

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Dorothy S. Gelatt

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Anyone who wants maximum lens versatility from a minimum of gear and weight should look at this 35→105-mm Tokina zoom lens with its close-up control. I was hooked by an ad, bought the lens, and was delighted. For general work, travel, portraiture, nature close-ups, and any pictures that don’t absolutely call for million-dollar optics, it will take you almost anywhere.

This aperture-preferred automatic SLR has no shutter-speed dial. Instead, to the right of the pentaprism it has four shiny selector buttons marked auto, M.X, up, and down. Pressing anyone of them will sound a beep. Both the light meter and the shutter mechanism are powered by two 1.5-volt silver-oxide or alkaline-manganese-dioxide batteries housed in the baseplate.

Aberrations: A flawlessly manufactured lens may still exhibit residual aberrations (image faults). Often, certain aberrations are permitted by the designer to minimize others felt to be more harmful to image quality. Astigmatism: Causes lines radial to the optical axis, and lines perpendicular to these, to focus in two different planes.

While far from being among the top-five SLR makers, Cosina is among the very few who make their own optical glass, and this self-sufficiency is seen in other aspects of its operation. Located off the beaten path in a picturesque mountain region in Japan, Cosina has come a long way in a short time, so it was with great interest that its CT7 was examined.

Lopsided shoulders burdened with gadget bags crammed full of lenses and multiple camera bodies are a professional photographer’s plague. Although zoom lenses have attempted to cure this lingering ailment, they have been excluded by those demanding exacting focus and good resolution along a series of focal lengths, plus sufficient speed for various light situations.

Here is a half-frame compact 35-mm camera that also packs automatic electronic flash

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The attraction of the half-frame 35mm camera is that you get twice as many shots per roll; not only is this economical, but it cuts down on your load—great for traveling. Olympus’ Pen EF is the latest example. Not only is it compact, but unlike previous Pen models, it has built-in electronic flash, yet is still small enough to fit pocket or purse.

Tibet, by Ngapo Ngawang Jigmel, et al. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981; 296 pp. with 237 color photographs; hardcover, $60. A series of essays by seven native authors and scholars, beautifully illustrated by a team of 18 Chinese photographers. Tibet provides a rare insight into this mysterious land at the top of the world as well as what is probably the first concentrated glimpse of photographic talent in the People’s Republic.

■ The Olympus OM-10, a 35-mm SLR, is offered in a professional black finish; price, $425 with 50-mm f/1.8 lens. For literature with full details, write to: Olympus Camera Corp., Crossways Park, Woodbury, N.Y. 11797. Lenses ■ Three Hoya HMC automatic lenses, all stopping down to f/22, are available in mounts for most popular SLR 35s.

Color, revised edition, by the editors of Time-Life Books. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, Inc., 1981 240 pp.; hardcover, $14.95. Ten years ago Time-Life set the standard for photographic books with their informative and handsomely executed Life Library of Photography. To keep pace with the constant advances in the field, the Library is being revised, and Color is the first book of the updated edition.

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